A heartfelt, humorous story of a teen boy’s impulsive road trip after the shock of his lifetime—told entirely in lists!

Darren hasn’t had an easy year.

There was his parents’ divorce, which just so happened to come at the same time his older brother Nate left for college and his longtime best friend moved away. And of course there’s the whole not having a girlfriend thing.

Then one Thursday morning Darren’s dad shows up at his house at 6 a.m. with a glazed chocolate doughnut and a revelation that turns Darren’s world inside out. In full freakout mode, Darren, in a totally un-Darren move, ditches school to go visit Nate. Barely twenty-four hours at Nate’s school makes everything much better or much worse—Darren has no idea. It might somehow be both. All he knows for sure is that in addition to trying to figure out why none of his family members are who they used to be, he’s now obsessed with a strangely amazing girl who showed up out of nowhere but then totally disappeared.

3 Disadvantages of Writing a Novel in Lists

2 Reasons Why I’m Writing This Review in Lists

The novel is written in lists.

I want to.

1 Reason Why I’m Switching Back to Paragraph Style

It’s hard to write in lists.

OKAAAAY. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t be consistent with lists because lists are supposed to be short and I always find it hard to KISS (Keep It Short and Simple) so I’m sticking to what I’m comfortable with.

Re: The long title

I know, right? The title is verrrry loooong. It sucks when you have to type it several times. Even the acronym, MBMIEaIaYBY, is not easy to memorize and to type. So for my review, I’ll shorten the title to Me Being Me.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the title. And the way it was mentioned in the story is cute, at least to me.

Masking the issue through humor = Good move

Me Being Me presented a very serious issue in the first quarter. It added depth to the story, and it made the novel very promising.

Darren’s experiencing things that are not commonly experienced by boys his age, and that’s sad, because the things were pretty intense. It’s like he was growing up in an accelerated manner, and his situation forced him to be a more mature person. What happened to Darren made him a tougher man, and that’s the good thing.

The situation was masked through the funny items in Darren’s lists, and it was very nice to read those because they served as short breaks from the ugly reality.

So yeah, good move.

We’re all in this together (*sings the song*)

Throughout the story, characters showed support for Darren. They made them feel their presence, for Darren to remember that he wasn’t alone in his fight. I think that’s all we need most of the time. We just need to be reminded that we have people beside us who will hold our hand when times get hard.

Me Being Me is a story of growing up and being a better person that who you were the last time you looked in the mirror. It’s a story of friendship, family, and being there for the people we care about.